WEBVTT 1 00:00:15.560 --> 00:00:20.039 From Powerline blog dot com and produced by Ricochet dot com. 2 00:00:20.079 --> 00:00:35.479 This is the power Line Show with your host Steve Hayward. Well, 3 00:00:35.560 --> 00:00:38.920 Hi everybody, and welcome to this special classic format edition 4 00:00:39.000 --> 00:00:42.200 of the podcast, which is prompted by the news headlines 5 00:00:42.200 --> 00:00:45.439 out the last few days that Israel's plans to launch 6 00:00:45.479 --> 00:00:48.039 an attack or strike on Iran in retaliation for a 7 00:00:48.079 --> 00:00:51.520 recent run in rocket attacks were leaked by the United 8 00:00:51.520 --> 00:00:54.679 States and perhaps some of our allies as well. Now 9 00:00:54.719 --> 00:00:56.840 I think it's possible the story is even worse than 10 00:00:56.840 --> 00:01:00.880 it sounds. It's bad enough that national security has been breached, 11 00:01:01.399 --> 00:01:04.079 but there may be something even more serious lurking in 12 00:01:04.120 --> 00:01:06.599 the background that we ought to start thinking about and 13 00:01:06.680 --> 00:01:10.879 talking about and investigating. And I'm going to introduce this 14 00:01:11.159 --> 00:01:14.480 line of inquiry in a roundabout way. This headline got 15 00:01:14.480 --> 00:01:17.159 me to thinking about one of the last books of 16 00:01:17.159 --> 00:01:20.480 my mentor M. Stanton Evans, whose biography, of course, I 17 00:01:20.599 --> 00:01:23.680 recently wrote, and one of his last books was called 18 00:01:23.920 --> 00:01:27.920 Stalin's Secret Agents, which he co authored with Herb Romerstein, 19 00:01:28.640 --> 00:01:31.120 someone I also knew slightly. He had been head of 20 00:01:31.159 --> 00:01:34.519 the House Intelligence Committee as a staffer, not as a congressman, 21 00:01:35.120 --> 00:01:38.840 and Stalin's secret agents took on an interesting thought, which was, 22 00:01:39.159 --> 00:01:41.159 you know, all the spy stories of the forties and 23 00:01:41.200 --> 00:01:44.599 into the fifties, and McCarthyism and all the rest. In 24 00:01:44.640 --> 00:01:48.159 the alger Hiss case, for example, we're mostly about well, gosh, 25 00:01:48.159 --> 00:01:52.159 were they giving secrets away to the Soviet Union? But 26 00:01:52.200 --> 00:01:54.480 Stan and Herb got to thinking, I wonder if this 27 00:01:54.719 --> 00:01:57.599 problem is more serious than that. And in fact, if 28 00:01:57.599 --> 00:02:02.079 you look closely, maybe all the Soviet agents and Soviet 29 00:02:02.159 --> 00:02:06.560 sympathizers and the useful idiots who sympathize with communism, who 30 00:02:06.560 --> 00:02:09.639 were embedded in high positions in our government, many more 31 00:02:09.639 --> 00:02:12.240 than we ever knew about and may ever learn about, 32 00:02:12.840 --> 00:02:16.879 might have had a significant effect on policy and key 33 00:02:16.919 --> 00:02:19.919 decisions in World War two, and just after that went 34 00:02:19.960 --> 00:02:22.560 a long way towards shaping the Cold War that happened 35 00:02:22.599 --> 00:02:24.599 after World War Two. So what I want to do 36 00:02:24.680 --> 00:02:27.319 is share with you a lecture that Stan gave about 37 00:02:27.319 --> 00:02:31.319 this subject about twenty years ago now, and I think 38 00:02:31.319 --> 00:02:33.479 you'll pick up where I'm going with this, and after 39 00:02:33.520 --> 00:02:35.719 it's over, I will come back with a few comments 40 00:02:35.719 --> 00:02:38.039 of my own, and then you can take the story 41 00:02:38.080 --> 00:02:41.080 from there. So without further Ado here's m Stanton Evans 42 00:02:41.120 --> 00:02:44.080 at the Philadelphia Society from around about I think two 43 00:02:44.120 --> 00:02:46.159 thousand and three, and we'll just pick it up in 44 00:02:46.199 --> 00:02:46.680 the middle. 45 00:02:49.080 --> 00:02:53.280 Now, what I am going to talk about here in 46 00:02:53.360 --> 00:03:00.159 the next three hours is not Owen Lanimore but or 47 00:03:00.240 --> 00:03:04.680 Joe McCarthy even, but the generic problem that Owen Latimer represented, 48 00:03:05.159 --> 00:03:11.199 Joe McCarthy was addressing, but went way beyond the McCarthy era, 49 00:03:11.840 --> 00:03:16.759 both preceding it and following it. And this is something 50 00:03:16.800 --> 00:03:19.400 that evolved out of my research that is now becoming 51 00:03:19.400 --> 00:03:22.599 a project of the Education and Research Institute, which is 52 00:03:22.639 --> 00:03:26.000 our little five O one seat three, which we're collecting 53 00:03:26.280 --> 00:03:30.879 data on these problems, not only the FBI files, which 54 00:03:30.879 --> 00:03:36.120 are immense, but the Venona papers, which are the decryptions 55 00:03:36.199 --> 00:03:42.319 of the Soviet messages to their agents in America back 56 00:03:42.360 --> 00:03:45.759 in the forties, that the FBI had in its possession 57 00:03:45.879 --> 00:03:49.680 for many years. Also the archives of the State Department, 58 00:03:49.800 --> 00:03:53.719 of the Office of Strategic Services, the Office of War Information, 59 00:03:53.960 --> 00:03:59.840 other agencies back in the forties and fifties, all the 60 00:04:00.439 --> 00:04:05.080 which are now available under the rules of the Archives 61 00:04:05.120 --> 00:04:07.680 and also under the rules of the Senate. The Congress 62 00:04:07.800 --> 00:04:10.479 is the fifty eurou for the Senate, for example. All 63 00:04:10.520 --> 00:04:15.280 this material is now coming online and can be obtained 64 00:04:16.319 --> 00:04:19.839 if you want to look at it. Is what we're doing. 65 00:04:20.079 --> 00:04:24.000 So we have been assembling this stuff and sorting it 66 00:04:24.040 --> 00:04:29.040 out and trying to figure out what does it tell us? 67 00:04:29.120 --> 00:04:33.800 And the answer is another of my laws. Lee does 68 00:04:33.839 --> 00:04:42.519 not mention Evans law of inadequate paranoia, which says, no 69 00:04:42.519 --> 00:04:45.600 matter how bad you think something is, when you look 70 00:04:45.680 --> 00:04:50.439 into it, it's always worse. And this stuff is amazing 71 00:04:50.519 --> 00:04:52.800 the record that's there. And I can tell you that 72 00:04:53.639 --> 00:04:57.560 based on the information we now have, I say we generically, 73 00:04:57.600 --> 00:05:02.079 not just us, but other people doing this. The histories 74 00:05:02.120 --> 00:05:06.519 that we have of the Cold War, most of them 75 00:05:06.560 --> 00:05:12.519 can be thrown out. They're just wrong, they're inaccurate, frequently 76 00:05:14.240 --> 00:05:20.279 disinformation really, and the true history that era remains to 77 00:05:20.319 --> 00:05:24.199 be written. And again thinking about the young folks here, 78 00:05:25.879 --> 00:05:29.000 that there are a one hundred books or more waiting 79 00:05:29.040 --> 00:05:32.480 to be written based on this material of what actually 80 00:05:32.560 --> 00:05:37.920 happened in the nineteen forties and nineteen fifties in our 81 00:05:38.000 --> 00:05:43.399 government and the consequences thereof. What this material shows in 82 00:05:43.439 --> 00:05:47.680 a nutshell is that there was massive, truly massive infiltration 83 00:05:47.800 --> 00:05:51.879 of our government by communists, fellow travelers, and Soviet agents, 84 00:05:53.279 --> 00:05:56.439 beginning in the nineteen thirties, but then intensifying in the 85 00:05:56.519 --> 00:05:59.360 nineteen forties, particularly during World War Two, when the Soviet 86 00:05:59.480 --> 00:06:05.120 Union was our ally and hundreds of communists and Soviet 87 00:06:05.160 --> 00:06:09.920 agents were in our government, and perhaps thousands, although there's 88 00:06:09.920 --> 00:06:11.519 no way of telling it because a lot of them, 89 00:06:12.319 --> 00:06:14.480 A lot of the information is not yet available, and 90 00:06:14.639 --> 00:06:17.800 some of it, some of it was never obtained to 91 00:06:17.839 --> 00:06:25.000 begin with. However, early on the FBI got on the 92 00:06:25.120 --> 00:06:33.079 trail of these people, and based on surveillance, based on 93 00:06:34.120 --> 00:06:37.680 tips from informers, and then ultimately based on the revelations 94 00:06:37.680 --> 00:06:43.439 of Elizabeth Bentley, who was probably the most important single 95 00:06:43.480 --> 00:06:49.680 witness of this era, got after these communists in the 96 00:06:49.680 --> 00:06:59.839 government and wire tapped them, open their mail, conducted intensive 97 00:07:00.040 --> 00:07:03.800 personal surveillance, did everything in the world to follow and 98 00:07:03.879 --> 00:07:08.240 track them around, and violated their civil liberties to the max, 99 00:07:09.279 --> 00:07:14.319 which I'd like to say was the good old days. 100 00:07:15.160 --> 00:07:20.319 That's that's that's the way you should deal with communists. 101 00:07:22.120 --> 00:07:24.839 I came to the conclusion some years ago that having 102 00:07:24.879 --> 00:07:28.079 communists in your government is not good. It is not 103 00:07:28.160 --> 00:07:35.279 a good thing, and the reason for that is not 104 00:07:35.319 --> 00:07:40.480 because of their theoretical beliefs, but because they were, and 105 00:07:40.519 --> 00:07:44.079 to extend they're still around, are agents of a hostile 106 00:07:44.120 --> 00:07:47.120 foreign power, and probably therefore it should not be in 107 00:07:47.160 --> 00:07:51.560 our government. Maybe in their government, not our government. Let 108 00:07:51.560 --> 00:07:54.160 me give you just a couple of quick examples of 109 00:07:54.319 --> 00:07:59.240 why it isn't so good to have communists in your government, 110 00:07:59.360 --> 00:08:03.959 or as happened with the British and their government and 111 00:08:04.120 --> 00:08:06.680 many other governments, a couple of anecdotes from the year 112 00:08:06.800 --> 00:08:08.800 World War Two. I'm trying to do this very briefly. 113 00:08:09.920 --> 00:08:15.040 In nineteen forty three nineteen forty four in Yugoslavia, there 114 00:08:15.120 --> 00:08:19.480 was a contest between a communist faction headed by the 115 00:08:19.519 --> 00:08:23.639 man who took the Nome Daghea Tito, and an anti 116 00:08:23.639 --> 00:08:30.079 communist faction headed by a man named dra Mihailovich. In 117 00:08:30.439 --> 00:08:37.799 forty three early forty three, Radio Moscow began putting out 118 00:08:37.840 --> 00:08:42.000 the line that Mihailovich was a collaborator with the Nazis 119 00:08:42.000 --> 00:08:46.000 and a crater, and then only Tito was really leading 120 00:08:46.080 --> 00:08:52.720 the battle against the Nazis. This line was picked up 121 00:08:52.759 --> 00:08:57.720 by our own Office of War Information and by British 122 00:08:57.919 --> 00:09:04.279 Broadcasting Corporation, and reports began coming out of Cairo, which 123 00:09:04.360 --> 00:09:07.399 was the center for intelligence for the Mediterranean and the 124 00:09:07.399 --> 00:09:13.279 Balkans which were due north of there, that indeed Mahailovich 125 00:09:13.399 --> 00:09:18.000 was a trader and collaborator, and only Tito was fighting 126 00:09:18.039 --> 00:09:21.200 against the Nazis, and so forth and so on. That 127 00:09:21.360 --> 00:09:25.159 was then believed by the British ministries up to including 128 00:09:25.200 --> 00:09:29.679 Winston Churchill. They cut Mahailovich off, gave all the age 129 00:09:29.679 --> 00:09:35.519 to Tito, disowned Mahailovich, and when push came to shove, 130 00:09:36.440 --> 00:09:40.759 Tito was able to capture Mahalovich and kill him and 131 00:09:41.000 --> 00:09:47.399 take over Yugoslavia. Well. The central player in the Cairo 132 00:09:47.559 --> 00:09:49.799 intelligence set up for the British as a man named 133 00:09:49.879 --> 00:09:54.200 James Klaugman who was a Soviet agent who had been 134 00:09:54.200 --> 00:09:58.080 part of the phil Bey ring in Cambridge, and he 135 00:09:58.240 --> 00:10:00.720 was the one who was massaging these days and sending 136 00:10:00.759 --> 00:10:06.399 them back to London, and they were believed. In September 137 00:10:06.480 --> 00:10:10.679 forty three, our Office of Strategic Services parachuted a man 138 00:10:10.879 --> 00:10:17.159 into Yugoslavia, Captain Lynn Ferris, who began sending back exactly 139 00:10:17.200 --> 00:10:21.759 the same reports Mahilovich as a collaborator and trader working 140 00:10:21.759 --> 00:10:26.480 with the Nazis. Only Tito is leading the fight against Hitler, 141 00:10:27.600 --> 00:10:30.440 and our government made the same decision. We cut Mahalovich 142 00:10:30.480 --> 00:10:35.480 off and backed Tito, and that report was given to 143 00:10:35.639 --> 00:10:39.559 President Roosevelt from this Lynn Farrish on the eve of 144 00:10:39.559 --> 00:10:43.480 the Terror End Conference in November forty three, where Tito 145 00:10:43.840 --> 00:10:47.879 was anointed as the new leader of Yugoslavia. Well in 146 00:10:47.960 --> 00:10:51.399 the Venona papers, Lynn Ferrish shows up as a contact 147 00:10:51.440 --> 00:10:55.799 of the KGB, and there we find him a meeting 148 00:10:55.840 --> 00:10:59.399 with his controller from the KGB, we find a meeting 149 00:10:59.440 --> 00:11:07.159 with an another Soviet agent and receiving from them such contacts, 150 00:11:07.519 --> 00:11:12.440 this party line, which he then transmitted back to the 151 00:11:12.639 --> 00:11:16.879 OSS which then reached high as the White House itself, 152 00:11:16.919 --> 00:11:20.639 and President Roosevelt and so our government too wrote off 153 00:11:20.960 --> 00:11:27.200 Mihailovich and put its chips on Tito. The following year, 154 00:11:28.039 --> 00:11:32.039 in Chung King, China, nineteen forty four, the diplomat named 155 00:11:32.120 --> 00:11:37.919 John Stewart's Service was dispatched by our government to aid 156 00:11:38.080 --> 00:11:41.440 the then government of China under Chang Kai Chek and 157 00:11:41.519 --> 00:11:45.600 anti communists. John Stuart Service was living in a house 158 00:11:45.639 --> 00:11:48.879 in Chung King was not one but two Soviet agents. 159 00:11:49.200 --> 00:11:51.960 One was a man named Solomon Adverer who was then 160 00:11:52.000 --> 00:11:54.840 addessay of the Treasury Department. And another one was a 161 00:11:54.879 --> 00:11:58.360 man named Chi Chiao Ting who was acidic Chinese, who 162 00:11:58.480 --> 00:12:01.480 was a mole. And the government of Chang Kai Schek, 163 00:12:02.159 --> 00:12:05.879 so we had on our top diplomats in China is 164 00:12:05.960 --> 00:12:09.440 living with two case hardened Soviet agents. And this is 165 00:12:09.480 --> 00:12:13.600 all clear of the FBI records. And Invenona and he 166 00:12:14.399 --> 00:12:18.799 service and Saul Adler, the Treasury guy, are sending back 167 00:12:18.799 --> 00:12:23.360 a stream of reports to our government saying Shang Kai 168 00:12:23.399 --> 00:12:26.639 Shak is a collaborator and a trader. Chang Kai Shak 169 00:12:26.799 --> 00:12:29.840 is working with the Japanese. Chang Ky Check is doing nothing. 170 00:12:29.919 --> 00:12:34.080 Only the Chinese communists are resisting the Japanese. This is 171 00:12:34.120 --> 00:12:36.559 the message identical to the message that came out of 172 00:12:36.600 --> 00:12:42.200 Yugoslavia the year before. This information goes in the case 173 00:12:42.320 --> 00:12:46.159 of John Stuart's Service to the State Department, but also 174 00:12:46.279 --> 00:12:48.720 to this White House, to a men named Lauchlan Curry, 175 00:12:48.720 --> 00:12:51.919 who was a Soviet agent in the Treasury Department. In 176 00:12:51.960 --> 00:12:53.960 the case of sal Laddler goes to a man named 177 00:12:53.960 --> 00:12:58.720 Harry Dexter White, also a Soviet agent. These messages are 178 00:12:58.799 --> 00:13:04.240 then mutual confirming and the intelligence well, therefore Chang Kai 179 00:13:04.279 --> 00:13:07.279 Shek is a collaborator and treder, just as Mihalovich had been. 180 00:13:07.559 --> 00:13:10.440 We need to cut Chang Kai Shek off, stopped giving 181 00:13:10.480 --> 00:13:13.080 him any aid and put our chips on the Chinese 182 00:13:13.120 --> 00:13:16.159 threads that a non In the Treasury Department, we have 183 00:13:16.320 --> 00:13:19.159 the morgans Thaw diaries who was the Secretary of the 184 00:13:19.200 --> 00:13:23.600 Treasury at this time, in which Secretary Morgan Thaw is 185 00:13:23.679 --> 00:13:27.919 asking his age, why has not the aid that we 186 00:13:28.039 --> 00:13:32.639 promised Chang Kai Shek been sent forward? And the nationalist 187 00:13:32.720 --> 00:13:35.360 Chinese were complaining bitterly that they had not received this 188 00:13:35.480 --> 00:13:40.480 aid two hundred million dollar loaning. Gold and his staffers 189 00:13:41.720 --> 00:13:45.639 Harriet extra why a man named v front Co and 190 00:13:45.720 --> 00:13:47.919 Solomon Adler when he was back in the States, are 191 00:13:47.960 --> 00:13:51.759 explaining to Secretary Morganhaw why it is not feasible to 192 00:13:51.879 --> 00:13:55.919 get this aid to Chang Kai Scheck. Every person talking 193 00:13:56.000 --> 00:14:01.840 to Secretary Morgan Thaw in the Treasury conference where this 194 00:14:01.960 --> 00:14:06.720 is brought up is a Soviet agent. Three Soviet agents 195 00:14:06.759 --> 00:14:10.240 surrounding the surgery telling him why you should not advance 196 00:14:10.279 --> 00:14:13.360 aid to Chang Kayshak, and that aid was indeed cut 197 00:14:13.399 --> 00:14:17.519 off and further aid was cut off in the following 198 00:14:17.600 --> 00:14:23.360 year during the Marshall Mission to China, and that pretty 199 00:14:23.360 --> 00:14:27.679 well spelled curtains for tang Kaishak. This is why it 200 00:14:27.759 --> 00:14:34.559 is not good to have communists in your government. If 201 00:14:34.559 --> 00:14:37.759 you have communists in your government, things like that tend 202 00:14:37.840 --> 00:14:41.960 to happen. Now that's the history, and there's a hinge here. 203 00:14:42.000 --> 00:14:45.279 I'm going to bring this forward to the current day. 204 00:14:45.960 --> 00:14:49.600 There was a rationale for that time for having communists 205 00:14:49.639 --> 00:14:54.679 in the government, and many such pronouncements were made. Here 206 00:14:54.759 --> 00:14:56.919 was one that was handed down in December of nineteen 207 00:14:57.039 --> 00:15:00.200 forty four, covered at the time by Willard Edwards, the 208 00:15:00.240 --> 00:15:03.440 father of Lee Ewart, for the Chicago Tribune of the 209 00:15:03.480 --> 00:15:07.240 Watching Times Herald. This is an order headed down by 210 00:15:07.240 --> 00:15:12.519 the Adjutant General of the Army to the Army commanders. 211 00:15:13.919 --> 00:15:16.720 There had been a rule that communists should not have 212 00:15:16.759 --> 00:15:21.279 commissions in the army, and this order rescinded that rule 213 00:15:21.960 --> 00:15:25.279 and said quote, no action will be taken that is 214 00:15:25.360 --> 00:15:29.639 predicated on membership in or adherence to the doctrine of 215 00:15:29.639 --> 00:15:34.240 the Communist Party, unless there is a specific finding that 216 00:15:34.320 --> 00:15:38.000 the individual involved has a loyalty to the Communist Party, 217 00:15:38.200 --> 00:15:44.320 which outweighs his loyalty to the United States. Now imagine 218 00:15:44.399 --> 00:15:50.080 the mind Reading Act. His loyalty to Communism is about 219 00:15:50.120 --> 00:15:53.639 fifty one percent, and his loyalty to the United States 220 00:15:53.720 --> 00:15:56.559 is about forty nine percent. So I guess we should 221 00:15:56.559 --> 00:15:58.559 get him out of here. Well, this is impossible. Nobody 222 00:15:58.559 --> 00:16:02.320 can do that. This is blanche for having communists on 223 00:16:02.399 --> 00:16:04.440 the payroll, which they did, and they come Mason the 224 00:16:04.480 --> 00:16:07.960 Communists in the army, and this was indicative of what 225 00:16:08.080 --> 00:16:12.000 happened throughout the government. This doctrine is based on the 226 00:16:12.000 --> 00:16:16.240 notion that just theoretical adherence to the Communist Party is 227 00:16:16.279 --> 00:16:21.120 no big deal, or that mere advocacy of Communism is 228 00:16:21.159 --> 00:16:24.000 no big deal, that mere membership in the Communist Party 229 00:16:24.080 --> 00:16:30.000 is not a disqualification for government service. That became the 230 00:16:30.159 --> 00:16:34.879 established jurisprudence of the United States, starting in a court 231 00:16:34.960 --> 00:16:38.879 decision in nineteen forty three, the Schneiderman decision that it 232 00:16:39.000 --> 00:16:41.960 was dicked up, and then picked up later the Kyishian 233 00:16:42.000 --> 00:16:44.919 decision in sixty seven, a five for decisions written by 234 00:16:45.480 --> 00:16:49.600 William Brennan and then repeated in other decisions thereafter, which 235 00:16:49.679 --> 00:16:53.639 basically said that mere membership in the Communist Party, mere 236 00:16:53.799 --> 00:16:57.879 knowing membership in the Communist Party is not a disqualification 237 00:16:58.080 --> 00:17:04.759 for a government job or anything else. That doctrine became 238 00:17:06.000 --> 00:17:11.319 the standing rule of our government in the nineteen sixties 239 00:17:11.440 --> 00:17:15.160 seventies and resulted in the almost complete destruction of our 240 00:17:15.200 --> 00:17:19.640 internal security system. And if you read the hearings of 241 00:17:19.680 --> 00:17:22.440 this the Civil Service Commission, people were saying, we cannot 242 00:17:22.480 --> 00:17:24.839 even ask if somebody is a member of the Communist 243 00:17:24.880 --> 00:17:27.119 Party that is not permitted to be asked, You can't 244 00:17:27.119 --> 00:17:32.799 ask them, and many other indicators of the same the 245 00:17:32.839 --> 00:17:38.160 same thing. And in the seventies we saw the abolition 246 00:17:38.279 --> 00:17:42.240 of the House Committee on Our American Activities, of the 247 00:17:42.240 --> 00:17:46.839 Senate Internal Security Subcommittee, the Attorney General's List of Subversive Organizations, 248 00:17:47.200 --> 00:17:50.920 the Subversive Activities Control Board, all of these wiped off 249 00:17:50.960 --> 00:17:55.519 the books in obedience to this doctrine. Also in the seventies, 250 00:17:55.559 --> 00:18:02.359 and this brings us now forward, were adopted to sets 251 00:18:02.359 --> 00:18:06.920 of rules governing the FBI the activities of the FBI 252 00:18:07.160 --> 00:18:10.519 what was called the Levy Guidelines, named for them Attorney 253 00:18:10.599 --> 00:18:15.599 General Edward Levy, which said basically that the FBI could 254 00:18:15.640 --> 00:18:23.720 not conduct surveillance or intrusive observation of any so called 255 00:18:23.759 --> 00:18:30.440 subversive group absence probable cause that a crime was about 256 00:18:30.480 --> 00:18:33.279 to be committed, and there was this overt act standard 257 00:18:33.759 --> 00:18:42.279 is then enshrine in these regulations so that they weren't 258 00:18:42.279 --> 00:18:45.759 allowed to follow KGB agents around, They weren't allowed to 259 00:18:45.960 --> 00:18:49.160 clip articles on groups like the Progressive Labor Party and 260 00:18:49.279 --> 00:18:52.119 keep files on them. All that was wiped out, and 261 00:18:53.039 --> 00:18:58.039 FBI had then Director William Webster, testified that as of 262 00:18:58.119 --> 00:19:02.519 nineteen seventy six seven, the FBI was out of the 263 00:19:02.559 --> 00:19:06.319 domestic security business, just out of it. They were not 264 00:19:06.400 --> 00:19:11.440 permitted to surveil any of these groups, and the number 265 00:19:11.480 --> 00:19:15.400 of such investigations dropped from about twenty two thousand twenty 266 00:19:15.440 --> 00:19:23.359 two thousand in nineteen seventy three to thirty eight three 267 00:19:23.480 --> 00:19:27.640 eight twenty two thousand to thirty eight in nineteen eighty two. 268 00:19:27.759 --> 00:19:32.039 That just totally wiped out the whole activity of the 269 00:19:32.119 --> 00:19:36.279 FBI and surveiling these groups, not just communist groups, but 270 00:19:36.480 --> 00:19:43.480 terrorist groups that were then becoming an increasing concern, the 271 00:19:43.480 --> 00:19:49.119 Weather Underground, the Prairie Fire Organizing Committee, Revolutionary Communist Party, 272 00:19:49.119 --> 00:19:52.279 and many others. Progressive Labor Party, They were not permitted 273 00:19:52.319 --> 00:19:55.640 to keep files on them, follow them, surveil them to anything. 274 00:19:57.319 --> 00:20:01.799 This stuff was then again enacted in nineteen seventy eight, 275 00:20:01.839 --> 00:20:07.599 and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act adopted the impetus of 276 00:20:07.680 --> 00:20:12.400 Senator Teddy Kennedy in the American Civil Liberties Union, in 277 00:20:12.480 --> 00:20:17.279 which it was stated that even in foreign intelligence, the 278 00:20:17.319 --> 00:20:21.079 other stuff was domestic, that there could not be any 279 00:20:21.160 --> 00:20:25.160 kind of intrusive measures absent of finding that a crime 280 00:20:25.359 --> 00:20:27.720 was being committed or about to be committed by the 281 00:20:27.759 --> 00:20:33.440 person who was to be surveilled. Fast forward again to 282 00:20:33.839 --> 00:20:39.799 August two thousand and one. In Minneapolis. In August of 283 00:20:39.839 --> 00:20:42.359 two thousand and one, the FBI arrested a man named 284 00:20:42.440 --> 00:20:50.440 Zacharias Musawi, who, by information received from French intelligence, was 285 00:20:50.799 --> 00:20:55.440 tied in without TITA, tied in with other terrorist jihattage 286 00:20:55.599 --> 00:21:03.759 terrorist organizations, and he addition, been taking flying lessons at 287 00:21:03.799 --> 00:21:07.400 an air school in Minneapolis, and the FBI agent there 288 00:21:07.440 --> 00:21:13.799 in charge of that, Colleen Rally, petitioned Washington, DC, headquarters 289 00:21:13.839 --> 00:21:18.599 of the FBI, for permission for a warrant to download 290 00:21:18.799 --> 00:21:23.400 his laptop computer and to search his personal effects in 291 00:21:23.519 --> 00:21:25.400 order to find out what this guy was up to. 292 00:21:25.480 --> 00:21:29.559 This is like August twenty first two thousand and one, denied. 293 00:21:30.240 --> 00:21:35.039 Cannot do it. Why there's no crime being committed. What 294 00:21:35.279 --> 00:21:39.559 crime is being committed. He's just taking flying lessons. He 295 00:21:39.240 --> 00:21:43.240 just belongs to his jihadist organization. That's not a crime. 296 00:21:44.680 --> 00:21:52.200 So it's denied. Well, this then, as we know, was 297 00:21:52.279 --> 00:21:55.440 preliminary to the attack of the World Trade Center and 298 00:21:55.599 --> 00:21:58.119 the Pentagon, the death of Free for the murder of 299 00:21:58.240 --> 00:22:03.279 three thousand people by the group to which Zachariisman salary 300 00:22:03.359 --> 00:22:07.039 was connected. That same attitude, and I'm almost out of 301 00:22:07.039 --> 00:22:14.680 time here pervades a good deal of our official activity 302 00:22:15.279 --> 00:22:19.680 reach to you from the guideline to the State Department, 303 00:22:20.480 --> 00:22:27.440 just prior to nine to eleven, which transpose all of 304 00:22:27.480 --> 00:22:31.079 this stuff from the Cold War to the terrorist war. 305 00:22:32.480 --> 00:22:35.680 And here's one of the stipulations on the Department's state 306 00:22:35.720 --> 00:22:40.920 website as of September two thousand and one. Statements approving 307 00:22:40.960 --> 00:22:45.480 a specific terrorist act and asserting that such acts should 308 00:22:45.559 --> 00:22:52.440 be repeated do not render an applicuanting ineligible for visa. 309 00:22:52.759 --> 00:22:58.839 It's just advocacy. It's just advocating terrorist actions, not actually 310 00:22:58.920 --> 00:23:04.720 committing them. Rules stipulated that mere membership in a terrorist 311 00:23:04.880 --> 00:23:09.359 organization there's no grounds for denying the visa. I read 312 00:23:09.400 --> 00:23:12.240 this quote a few years ago when we had a 313 00:23:13.480 --> 00:23:17.480 dinner for Vic Milione in Philadelphia. I'll read it again 314 00:23:17.839 --> 00:23:20.079 because I'm pretty sure most of you were not there. 315 00:23:20.400 --> 00:23:25.599 This is from the State Department visa application form, which 316 00:23:25.799 --> 00:23:28.200 as far as I know, is still extant. I haven't 317 00:23:28.279 --> 00:23:30.039 checked it recently, but it was still there. It was 318 00:23:30.039 --> 00:23:32.480 the last fall. This is one of the questions or 319 00:23:32.680 --> 00:23:36.200 series of questions. Do you seek to enter the United 320 00:23:36.240 --> 00:23:42.960 States to engage in export control violations, subversive or terrorist activities, 321 00:23:43.680 --> 00:23:51.599 or any other unlawful purpose? Are you a member or 322 00:23:51.720 --> 00:23:58.480 representative of a terrorist organization as currently designated by the 323 00:23:58.559 --> 00:24:03.599 Secretary of State? Have you ever participated in persecutions directed 324 00:24:03.640 --> 00:24:09.799 by the Nazi government of Germany? How old are these people? Uh? 325 00:24:11.440 --> 00:24:19.480 Or have you ever participated in genocide? I'm telling you yes, yes, 326 00:24:19.640 --> 00:24:23.799 I uh uh a terrorist and I was young, but 327 00:24:23.880 --> 00:24:28.039 I was in the Nazi thing and yeah some genocide. Yes. 328 00:24:28.319 --> 00:24:34.680 So then at the bottom of the form it says this, well, 329 00:24:34.720 --> 00:24:46.200 a yes answer does not automatically signified. Dave Barry said, 330 00:24:46.200 --> 00:24:52.279 I am not making it up. Not automatically signifying in 331 00:24:52.279 --> 00:24:55.920 eligibility for visa If you answered yes, you may be 332 00:24:56.039 --> 00:25:00.960 required to personally appear before a consular off So, like 333 00:25:01.599 --> 00:25:07.359 we need to talk about this, hello, I mean, what's 334 00:25:07.440 --> 00:25:10.440 going on here? Well, there's a lot more. And these 335 00:25:10.440 --> 00:25:13.759 are just a few examples of what the American Civil 336 00:25:13.759 --> 00:25:18.279 Liberties Union, Sater Teddy Kennedy and others of their eark 337 00:25:18.400 --> 00:25:22.240 have inflicted upon our nation. Now, I know side Budding 338 00:25:22.359 --> 00:25:26.720 here very interested and we all are in getting the history. 339 00:25:26.759 --> 00:25:28.480 We need to get the history of this stuff straight, 340 00:25:28.559 --> 00:25:32.119 and that's important. I'm for that. There's one thing that 341 00:25:33.400 --> 00:25:35.559 is at least as important as getting the history right, 342 00:25:36.400 --> 00:25:45.839 and that is recriminations. We were promised a lot of 343 00:25:45.880 --> 00:25:49.759 recriminations after the fall of Vietnam. Remember that, Don's I'm 344 00:25:49.759 --> 00:25:55.119 gonna be recriminations. Well we never got them. I never 345 00:25:55.119 --> 00:25:58.720 I don't remember the recriminations For that. I wanted those 346 00:25:58.799 --> 00:26:03.240 recriminations and I want them now. Yeah, that's one I'm 347 00:26:03.240 --> 00:26:05.440 going to think you about history because it's never too late, 348 00:26:06.799 --> 00:26:12.880 never too late or well based with recriminations. So to 349 00:26:13.039 --> 00:26:15.319 the scholars here are the young people in projection, or 350 00:26:15.319 --> 00:26:24.599 I would say, it's recrimination time. Let's get started now. 351 00:26:24.640 --> 00:26:26.759 I think maybe you can see where I'm going with this, 352 00:26:27.440 --> 00:26:30.720 it is high time we ask the question seriously whether 353 00:26:30.799 --> 00:26:35.279 Iran has penetrated our foreign policy establishment, either by direct 354 00:26:35.319 --> 00:26:39.319 bribery or corruption, or you can never rule out simply 355 00:26:39.680 --> 00:26:41.680 useful idiots, as Lenin used to call them in the 356 00:26:41.680 --> 00:26:45.519 communist days, people who sympathize with Iran, or people who 357 00:26:45.599 --> 00:26:48.200 simply have liberal soft headedness and think if we're nice 358 00:26:48.319 --> 00:26:51.440 enough to Iron, sooner or later, we'll come around and 359 00:26:51.480 --> 00:26:54.559 be nice to Israel. Instead, I think we have to 360 00:26:54.559 --> 00:26:58.279 ask some basic questions, like why did President Obama sign 361 00:26:58.400 --> 00:27:01.559 off on giving billions of dollars to Iran. It's not 362 00:27:01.799 --> 00:27:03.880 necessarily that he was an agent of Iran, but that 363 00:27:03.960 --> 00:27:07.480 he's soft headed or had people around him who convinced 364 00:27:07.519 --> 00:27:10.359 it was a good idea. In particular, there is the 365 00:27:10.400 --> 00:27:13.480 case of the Special Envoy to Iran under both Biden 366 00:27:13.559 --> 00:27:17.519 and Obama, Robert Malley, who negotiated a lot of the 367 00:27:17.599 --> 00:27:21.000 nuclear agreement from twenty fifteen and of course last year 368 00:27:21.039 --> 00:27:25.359 his security clearance was suspended and the proximate charge is 369 00:27:25.400 --> 00:27:30.039 that he mishandled classified material. But the investigation has been 370 00:27:30.079 --> 00:27:33.680 referred to the FBI, and in fact the State Department 371 00:27:33.759 --> 00:27:37.480 and the White House refused or declined to inform Congress 372 00:27:37.559 --> 00:27:40.279 that Mallei security clearance had been suspended. 373 00:27:41.000 --> 00:27:41.599 And if we. 374 00:27:41.559 --> 00:27:44.039 Still had a committee on un American Activities or a 375 00:27:44.039 --> 00:27:47.480 committee on internal security the one Stan Evans mentioned had 376 00:27:47.480 --> 00:27:51.079 been abolished in the seventies, maybe we could hold some 377 00:27:51.279 --> 00:27:54.359 hearings into not only Malli, but other people in the 378 00:27:54.359 --> 00:27:57.279 State Department. What kind of contacts have you had with Iranians, 379 00:27:57.359 --> 00:27:59.519 what have your cultural connections been, and so. 380 00:27:59.440 --> 00:28:00.279 Forth and so on. 381 00:28:01.559 --> 00:28:05.559 We know that Iran has been quietly and through various channels, 382 00:28:06.000 --> 00:28:10.640 fundling money to students for justice in Palestine, and these 383 00:28:10.640 --> 00:28:13.759 are sophisticated people, and I think it's not at all 384 00:28:13.799 --> 00:28:16.160 beyond the pale to say there needs to be a 385 00:28:16.359 --> 00:28:19.799 serious look at the patient way Iran has tried to 386 00:28:19.799 --> 00:28:23.359 make inroads with American cultural and political institutions, and indeed 387 00:28:23.440 --> 00:28:27.359 even in our government, as Stan put it, we learn, 388 00:28:27.839 --> 00:28:30.319 if you look look seriously at the history of it, 389 00:28:30.680 --> 00:28:33.000 that we had a lot of agents of a hostile 390 00:28:33.119 --> 00:28:37.160 foreign power infiltrating our government back in the forties and 391 00:28:37.160 --> 00:28:39.920 fifties and maybe later. And I think now we need 392 00:28:39.920 --> 00:28:44.160 to ask the question, are we facing the problem of 393 00:28:44.240 --> 00:28:48.119 agents of a hostile foreign power, namely Iran, succeeding and 394 00:28:48.160 --> 00:28:52.799 affecting American foreign policy. Right now, people call it McCarthyism. 395 00:28:52.920 --> 00:28:53.440 I don't care. 396 00:28:53.559 --> 00:28:56.079 I'm tired of that. It's kind of like the racism charge. 397 00:28:56.359 --> 00:28:59.000 It's lost its power to deflect us from what ought 398 00:28:59.039 --> 00:29:01.240 to be done. And the last thing I'll say is, 399 00:29:01.319 --> 00:29:03.440 it would be a great thing if President Trump and 400 00:29:03.559 --> 00:29:07.599 Republican Congress proposed bringing back the House and Senate committees 401 00:29:07.599 --> 00:29:11.319